A portrait of Marie Laveau by artist Queen Hope Parker of Where Y'Art, as commissioned by NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune for its "300 for 300" celebration of New Orleans' tricentennial. (NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)

The Times-Picayune is marking the tricentennial of New Orleans with its ongoing 300 for 300 project, running through 2018 and highlighting 300 people who have made New Orleans New Orleans, featuring original artwork commissioned by NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune with Where Y'Art gallery. Today: Marie Laveau.

The icon: Marie Laveau.

The legacy: Over New Orleans' first 300 years, few have embodied the mystique of the city as fully as Marie Laveau, the legendary Voodoo queen whose name is all but synonymous with the city's eerie aura. Like New Orleans itself, she was full of contradictions, a devout Catholic who openly practiced the Voodoo traditions brought to the city by slaves. She was a healer, and she was an exorcist. She was a purveyor of charms, and she was dealer in hexes. Or maybe she wasn't any of those things. Because above all else, she was a mystery, her history long ago inextricably intertwined with myth -- making her a perfect cultural figurehead for New Orleans.

The artist: Queen Hope Parker, WhereYart.net.

The quote: "Although Marie Laveau's history has been very much sought after, it has never been published. ... The secrets of her life, however, could only be obtained by the old lady herself, but she would never tell the smallest part of what she knew." -- Lafcadio Hearn, in Marie Laveau's 1881 obituary in The New York Times

Explore more of Queen Hope Parker's work online at WhereYart.net and in person at the Where Y'Art gallery, 1901 Royal St.

TRI-via

As legend has it, Laveau was a hairdresser by trade, a business that helped her build a network of sources. What brought her fame, however, was her career as a soothsayer, adviser and nurse.

In the latter discipline particularly, she used knowledge of herbs and medicinal roots -- and what is described as a kind disposition -- to help heal the sick, including during the city's then-frequent outbreaks of yellow fever.

She married twice. The first time, to Jacques Paris, lasted only a year and ended when he unceremoniously disappeared. A year later, she got married again, to Christophe Dominique Glapion. That union lasted, producing 15 children.

Her first wedding was presided over by longtime St. Louis Cathedral rector

She was popular in her time among the rich and poor alike, according

She is said to have lived her whole life in the house in which she was born, on St. Ann Street, between Rampart and Burgundy.

She died in the same house, in June 1881, and was buried in St. Louis Cemetery No. 1.

For years, many of those visiting her tomb have marked it with an "x" in the hopes of having a wish come true. After repeated vandalism of tombs in the cemetery -- including Laveau's, which was painted pink by an unknown person in 2013 -- the Archdiocese of New Orleans closed St. Louis No. 1 to members of the public not accompanied by a tour guide.

After Laveau's death, it is believed that one of her daughters, also named Marie, carried on her mother's healing and spiritual traditions.